In the spring semester of 2014 I took a composition seminar with Kate Soper at Smith College. I need to devote entire essays to the extreme impact working and learning with Kate has had on me, but in the meantime, this is is one of my favorite pieces from the beginning of my composition career. The whole piece was centered around a really emotionally intense time for me. On New Year's Eve I found myself in the middle of a really nasty breakup that left me in an airport crying on the phone with my parents as the ball dropped. About 36 hours later Dérive was on tour in the middle of what was being called the Polar Vortex. That tour was among the most stressful I've ever been on. There was a 17 hour straight drive to get to a particularly awful show. We stayed with a legitimate hoarder in Cleveland. But the whole thing wrapped up with one of my favorite Dérive shows on a lavender farm in Virginia. The quartet was inspired by all these experiences. It was performed by MIVOS Quartet at Smith College in April or May of that year.